Feeling Minnesota, Minnesota? McHale booed, but not beaten, in homecoming.

Kevin McHale might not have succeeded as general manager in Minnesota, but he was a neighbor, a local from Hibbing that made it big and made his home state proud. So when McHale made his return to Minneapolis – they booed like crazy.

It was a weird way to treat a “Northwoods boy.” The guy did trade a first-round pick for Marko Jaric and the Wolves have failed to make the playoffs for so long that the pick is no longer lottery protected. But he also did trade the rights to O.J. Mayo to get Kevin Love, who is not only a wonderful player about to get a max contract, the best hope of the franchise he left, but also some vindication. The bulk of those booing McHale thought he was an idiot for taking that Love guy instead of Mayo.

Being so incredibly wrong on that apparently did not make many understanding of McHale being wrong on occasion, too. Neither did the good years that they shared before things went wrong. But most of all, it just seemed so odd that they were booing their own, the best player ever at the University of Minnesota and a guy that always championed the state of Minnesota.

No one expected that they would place a statue of him next to Mary Tyler Moore’s, but I actually thought there would be polite applause. Welcome back. No hard feelings. Best of luck.

McHale smiled as they booed him. He said later that someone made a comment about it that he found funny, though he did not share it. It really did not seem to bother him, and he insisted that he took no pleasure in beating the old team, either.

He seemed pretty happy, though he usually does with wins. My initial thought was to doubt his claim that he took no extra satisfaction from the win, but in thinking about it, it does make sense.

He returned to coaching because he wanted to compete again. When you think about McHale as a player you first think of those post moves (the ‘Worm and Squirm,” “White Salamander,” and ” Slippery Eel”) but you also think abouthow intensely competitive he was. It would make sense that he would be so focused on the pursuit of the win that he could put aside the rest.

“It feels as good as the last one, brother,” McHale said of winning his first game in Minneapolis on the opposing bench after 15 seasons as either the Timberwolves general manager or coach. “And hopefully, it will feel as good the next one.”

Still, his neighbors booed him. He got the win, and helped key it with a rotation change to a small and then smaller lineup. If he did feel some satisfaction in sending them out in the Minnesota cold without a win to keep them warm, no one could blame him.